Christian Marclay is an American and Swiss artist and musician based in London and New York whose work explores the fusion of sound and image through a wide variety of media; performance, collage, installation, photography, video and prints. He was raised in Geneva and studied at the Ecole Supérieure d’Art Visuel and then studied sculpture at the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston. As a performer and musician Marclay composed and experimented with music since he was 24, often siting Marcel Duchamp and Dada as influences. His prints often incorporate onomatopoeic words to emphasise the potential of linguistics and the possibilities of manipulating words like he manipulated music.

In ‘Skssh Clang Whssh’ (2011), the juxtaposition of many short bold words such as ‘thap’, ‘fwipp’ and ‘kkrak’ in close proximity, can be likened to the sound of these words played in close succession. Marclay also presents these words in thick writing with shadow so not only do the words strike the viewer at different levels but they also appear like graphic fragments of noise; as one reads the work they hear it simultaneously.

Recent solo exhibitions include the White Cube Bermondsey (2015), the Barbican London (2005), Tate Modern London (2004), and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2002).